#31

One night, You is lying in the water. It has been awhile since You's been in the water, and the itchiness on the side of Your face has been replaced by the soft comfort of sand. You is lying on a beach, and You realizes You was never in a prison cell this whole time. It makes You happy, but subtly happy. And You's perplexed as to why that happiness is so subtle.

You tries to swim in the ocean. You's always wanted to do so, but Your parents were never able to take You. So You does it now, but it's still not satisfying. The ocean feels like saliva and vomit, and being in it makes You tired. Therefore, it makes the most sense to sink below the waves and forget about a lot of things. But think about a lot of things too. Like visions. Visions occur frequently in the sort of life You leads, and this is no different. Visions are a staple, actually, of this existence.

This vision isn't one You's particularly proud of. It's slippery, though it is happening below the ocean, so that makes a lot of sense. You can sort of see the vision You's looking for between some coral, past a shelf made of sharks.

The vision isn't one of the future, either. It's more of a framework representing something happening in Your mind, right now, almost like a dream—but this isn't a dream, You fumes, it's a vision, and it can't be anything but. Something tickles Your face as You gets a look at the vision, and something tickles in Your stomach too. There's a smell of something wrong, and there's the sound of music born out of the cosmos—the song of everyone whose ever met a fate of any sort down in these waters.

At the bottom of the ocean, there. There is a statue, like the Statue of Liberty if it sunk, like in so many movies You's never seen. It is a statue of You. You sees Yourself with a bird mouth, until You realizes that it's not a beak, it's Your lips, extending forward from Your sunken cheeks. You has no eyes, and Your ribs are showing. Your fingers are long and distended, and Your legs look likewise. Everything is bony and protrudes, and You has a crown of seaweed as You becomes coral. You become plankton, which means You's as tiny as You is huge. You's too small to notice, and You's too big to crush.

Here, You's safe. Here, You's untouchable, and here, You needs no one. There's a flicker of blue static, a flash of an enormous tail, and You and Your visions are gone.